Esmeralda Negut, aged 20, said she regretted coming to the UK after her plan to find legitimate work ‘went out of the window’
Esmeralda Negut(Image: West Midlands Police)
This is the first picture of a babyfaced pickpocketing mum who left her young children behind in Romania while she stole from people in Birmingham.
Esmeralda Negut said she now regretted coming to the UK with hopes of making a better life after her plans of finding legitimate work ‘went out of the window’.
The 20-year-old mother-of-two resorted to stealing and targeted six people in Birmingham city centre, managing to swipe a £1,000 phone from one woman and a £2,000 cash envelope from another.
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But she was arrested after four failed pickpocketing attempts in the space of 15 minutes in the Bullring.
West Midlands Police had been monitoring her for two years, prosecutors said.
Negut, of Wyggeston Street, Burton-upon-Trent, admitted two counts of theft and four charges of attempted theft.
She was sentenced to 12 months detention at Birmingham Crown Court on Tuesday, June 17.
She had previously been given a four-month suspended sentence for a single theft offence in 2023.
Accomplices Florin Adir, aged 21, and a youth, acted as lookouts and stood close to victims to shield Negut reaching into their pockets and bags.
Ammo Khanna, prosecuting, said: “The offending is all of a similar type. Essentially a series of offences involving this defendant and two others targeting shoppers in Birmingham city centre.”
Negut successfully snatched a woman’s phone in the city centre on November 23 last year and then dipped into another woman’s handbag on February 20 this year, when she lucked out and grabbed an envelope containing £2,000 in cash.
She was back at it the next day, February 21, in the Bullring but either came away empty-handed or was spotted by the victims who pulled away from her.
Ms Khanna stated a police officer had known Negut and Adir ‘for a couple of years and has similar CCTV of these two offenders’.
After being arrested Negut refused to answer police questions but did say: ‘I’m sorry for everything I did I won’t do anything like this again’.
A general view of The Bullring shopping centre(Image: Handout)
Eoin Campbell, defending, reitered her remorse and said: “She came to the UK initially with the intention to work for a short period before returning to her home in Romania with some money to support her young family.
“When she arrived in this country she lived with her uncle for a short while.
“She found she could not work and her plan quickly went out of the window.
“She turned to crime to get money for food out of desperation.
“She regrets both her offending and coming to this country.
“She intends to return to Romania the day she is released from prison.
“She has no life in this country, nothing to come back for.”
Esmeralda Negut(Image: West Midlands Police)
The barrister continued: “Her two young children currently reside in Romania with her parents.
“She has had no contact with the child’s father for a number of years.
“She is desperate to return to Romania to be with her family and children.
“She has not spoken to them since being remanded into custody.
“When she did live in Romania she was their primary care giver.
“She left them with her parents with the hope of making money, albeit through legitimate means, and returning to make a better life.”
Mr Campbell told the court Negut left school in Romania with no qualifications but had ‘worked hard’ in retail which she intended to return to back in her native country once released from jail.
He also confirmed she had been employed in Spain picking crops, working six-hour days for 250 euros a week.
Adir, from Station Approach in Wembley, was sentenced at an earlier date at Cardiff Crown Court to 12 months for similar theft and attempted theft offences.
A youth was handed a six-month referral order at Birmingham Magistrates Court.